The present invention generally relates to computer memory and storage. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method of accessing and storing data in one or more flash storage devices.
A flash storage array includes multiple flash storage devices, such as flash storage chips. In one type of flash storage array, data is accessed in the flash storage devices serially via a data bus. In this process, a flash storage device is accessed individually until storage blocks of the flash storage device are used, and then the next flash storage device in the flash storage array is accessed. The performance of this type of flash storage array depends upon, and is limited to, the speed of accessing data in an individual flash storage device in the flash storage array as well as the speed of the data bus.
In another type of flash storage array, data is accessed in multiple flash storage devices to increase the throughput of the flash storage array. The flash storage array has multiple data busses, which allows data to be accessed synchronously in storage blocks of the storage devices. The number of storage blocks that can be accessed, however, is limited by the number of data busses in the flash storage array. Moreover, the access time of each storage block may vary. Consequently, the throughput of the flash storage array depends upon, and is limited to, the slowest access time among the storage blocks being accessed.
In light of the above, a need exists for improving the performance of a flash storage array.